AMD launch Phenom X4 and 790FX to lukewarm reception
Tuesday 20th November 2007, 09:09:00 PM, written by Rys
AMD finally release the first few quad-core Phenoms a couple of days
ago to a more than lukewarm reception, aggressive execution and pricing
by Intel taking the wind out of the X4 sails.
The launch was an odd one, AMD gathering hacks together in order to facilitate a better look at Spider, the company's brand new enthusiast platform. Spider seeks to unify the core performance-bringing components in a PC under one company umbrella, and woo folks away from Intel processors, NVIDIA graphics processors and non-AMD core logic.
It doesn't seem to have paid off at this point, with stepping issues, delays of the highest clocked launch part, low clocks in general and some distinctly dodgy mainboards based on the latest AMD northbridge silicon, AMD 790FX.
Architecturally, the new quad-core processor design has a solid match in Intel's current 65nm line of MCM quad-core chips, with the yet-to-be-fleshed-out 45nm designs with ever bigger caches and faster FSBs seemingly ready and waiting.
What's to like? Well, it's still a game of wait and see in some cases, should you buy into the fact that a new stepping of the CPU silicon can solve TLB errata and clock problems, and that mainboards will do their bit without sucking. The shining light of Spider is therefore definitely the GPG's latest silicon, RV670, and the new HD 38xx products that it powers.
We still wait to look at both in any depth, but from reading what's out there already when it comes to the processor, it seems what we'll say at the end of the processor analysis won't be too pretty in a comparative sense.
If you're looking for reviews of the processor elsewhere, the mighty Damage is finally done with his, and Geoff took a look at 790FX a couple of days ago. Both are well worth your technology time. Go read.
The launch was an odd one, AMD gathering hacks together in order to facilitate a better look at Spider, the company's brand new enthusiast platform. Spider seeks to unify the core performance-bringing components in a PC under one company umbrella, and woo folks away from Intel processors, NVIDIA graphics processors and non-AMD core logic.
It doesn't seem to have paid off at this point, with stepping issues, delays of the highest clocked launch part, low clocks in general and some distinctly dodgy mainboards based on the latest AMD northbridge silicon, AMD 790FX.
Architecturally, the new quad-core processor design has a solid match in Intel's current 65nm line of MCM quad-core chips, with the yet-to-be-fleshed-out 45nm designs with ever bigger caches and faster FSBs seemingly ready and waiting.
What's to like? Well, it's still a game of wait and see in some cases, should you buy into the fact that a new stepping of the CPU silicon can solve TLB errata and clock problems, and that mainboards will do their bit without sucking. The shining light of Spider is therefore definitely the GPG's latest silicon, RV670, and the new HD 38xx products that it powers.
We still wait to look at both in any depth, but from reading what's out there already when it comes to the processor, it seems what we'll say at the end of the processor analysis won't be too pretty in a comparative sense.
If you're looking for reviews of the processor elsewhere, the mighty Damage is finally done with his, and Geoff took a look at 790FX a couple of days ago. Both are well worth your technology time. Go read.
Tagging
amd ± phenom, launch, x4, 790fx, lukewarm
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